Pirated Thoughts

Guess who’s back, back again, Eminem, and this time he is dueling it out with Facebook. On May 20, 2013, a lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Michigan by rapper Eminem’s publishing company, Eight Mile Style, alleging copyright infringement by Facebook. Eight Mile Style alleges that Facebook, together with its advertising agency, Wieden

The Dungeon Master would not be happy about this one. On Monday, May 13, 2013, Hasbro Inc. filed a lawsuit against production company Sweetpea Entertainment, Inc. on a number of claims including copyright and trademark infringement. The suit was initiated as a result of Sweetpea taking significant steps with Warner Bros. Pictures to make a

Yet again, the relationship between copyright protection and Fair Use has been tested. In a suit for copyright infringement by photographer Patrick Cariou against appropriation artist Richard Prince, the district court for the Southern District of New York held for Cariou. But on April 25, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second

Recently, we highlighted a case brought by a group of broadcasters against Aereo, a startup company that allows its subscribers to stream television shows through the Internet. That article can be found here. On April 1, 2013, the Second Circuit affirmed a decision of the district court for the Southern District of New York denying

It’s hard to believe that anyone actually wants to take credit for writing the G.I. Joe movies but two of the writers of the 2009 movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, David Elliot and Paul Lovett, have brought a lawsuit for copyright infringement against Paramount, MGM, Hasbro and producer Di Bonaventura Pictures Inc. seeking

With the growing popularity of e-readers, the market for electronic books is booming. As such, one company in particular spotted an opportunity and has now been capitalizing on it for 2 years. 1DollarScan, started in 2011, is a company that transforms traditional paperback or hardcover books into e-books for a measly $1. Customers can send

The battle may finally be coming to an end, but superhero movies always seem to have a sequel. A litigation of epic proportions between the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerome Siegel and DC Comics temporarily reached a halt when Judge Wright granted partial summary judgment for DC ruling that the parties’ 2001 agreement transferring the

Trademark owners once again have to be more diligent in policing the use of their trademarks. Effective April 23, 2013, Google instituted a significant change to its policy on trademark use in keywords or Google AdWords. The change was implemented to create worldwide uniformity with respect to its trademark policies. The effect is to loosen

In an ongoing war between Viacom and YouTube, YouTube just won another major battle. The copyright infringement case was first filed back in 2007 in response to YouTube clips of Viacom’s television shows, including “South Park,” “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” In 2010, Judge Stanton for the Southern District of New

Back in the days of audio cassettes, music was routinely copied and shared with others but the quality of the copy was always poor. Now, with the advent of digital music, perfectly pristine copies of music can be shared, but an April 2013 court decision dealt a huge blow to the digital music secondhand market.